The Beginning of Our Story

Friday, July 16, 2010

Day 2: Denver, CO

We got into Denver about 3:30pm and stayed at the Courtyard by Marriot. I had called ahead of time to find rates of hotels, and I was quoted $139. The Comfort Inn had quoted us cheaper, but when we got there, they didn’t have any of the cheaper rooms available, plus you had to pay for Valet parking (they didn’t have a park-yourself option). So we left, and I called Courtyard back, and this time asked about parking as well. The gentleman that I talked to said that it was $10 a night. So it was still cheaper than Comfort Inn.

When we pulled up there was a sign that said $22 Valet parking. When I got inside, I asked the lady at the desk about the parking, and she said yes, it’s $22. I told her I had just spoken to a man on the phone that told me it was only $10. She didn’t seem to know what I was talking about, but then the guy that I had talked to, came out. He asked if I had just talked to him on the phone, I said, “Yeah, probably.” And he said that there was a parking package, and he’d take care of me. So he kicked the girl off her computer, and started registering us for the night. Then the girl said, “Well, why don’t you give them the sports package.” She told us that it included parking and a coupon for either 2 beers or an appetizer at their restaurant, and it was the same price. (We never used our coupon!)

We went up to our room and got settled in, but it was still quite early. So we decided to walk around the 16th Street Mall (a lot like the Nicollett Mall). We found a Johnny Rockets malt shop for dinner. The Caesar salad and Adam’s burger were good, but the malt was okay. If you’re a malt shop, you need to have awesome malts, not okay malts. But Adam found a Jamba Juice (one of his favorite treats!) later, and we shared one.

We walked the whole mall (twice actually). There were pianos in the middle of the street that were painted and had random people playing them. More random people were on the sides of the street sitting on the ground, or leaning up against a building playing guitars. One fellow had his daughter with him and she was playing the violin. One restaurant had a band playing outside with outside seating. We talked about sitting down there, but decided against it.

We went back to the hotel, and thought they had a pool, but they didn’t. So we decided to go back to our sixth floor room. For a shower gift from our wedding, I had gotten “honeymoon coupons,” which we had split up before we left home. I decided to redeem my “30 minute massage” coupon. Though I’m not sure it was 30 minutes, as we were both so tired, we went right to sleep.